19 conservation groups, including National Trust, have urged the UK MPs to rule out burying nuclear waste below national parks, after rumours have emerged that the Lake District could be an option for geological disposal of radioactive substances.
A Consultation ran earlier this year aimed to find a borough council in England or Northern Ireland willing to accept to have a nuclear disposal site built in their area. Although the communities were offered a £1m a year to volunteer to host such site, none of them accepted do it.
According to the Government, deep geological disposal is the only permanent solution for safe storage of nuclear waste, which will remain active for thousands of years. Currently such waste is stored at surface across various sites in the UK.
With the need to transition to low-carbon energy and the new nuclear power plant projects under way, the use of nuclear power along with renewables is predicted to be on the rise throughout the next few generations, which might result in increased production of radioactive waste.
The new plans set out by the committee of MPs aim to find the safest site to be chosen, regardless of the location. Labour's Rachel Reeves, chair to the committee, said: "We decided against adding an exclusionary criterion for national parks and AONBs as in our view it is right for safety matters to prevail over environmental concerns in this case".
Nevertheless, environmental and conservation groups said this undermines "long-established protections" afforded to the national parks and compared the prospect of a deep nuclear facility to a potash mine in North Yorkshire.
The Green Party MP Caroline Lucas said: "It's outrageous to think companies burying nuclear waste and fracking for gas in some of the most beautiful places in the country. Tussles over which communities have to put up with this toxic material brings us all to shame."
